A History of the English Puritans

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1867 edition. Excerpt: ...reverses. So infatuated was he with his own supremacy, that it never entered into his mind that it could suffer any change; and full of arrogance, yet sincere, he thought it due to his honor and his rank to assume the tone and claim the rights of tyranny, even while borrowing the assistance of liberty." " Pari. Hist., vol. 2, col. 218. f Ibid., col. 212-217. J Rushworth, vol. 1, p. 473; Clarendon. Hume, vol. 2, p. 202. i Pari. Hist., vol. 2, col. 218; Guizot, Rushworth. IT Guizot, vol. 1, p. 34. But the Commons were as proud and inflexible as the king was imperious. They were unmoved by the royal threats. " They were resolved solemnly to proclaim their liberties, to oblige the court to acknowledge them as primitive and independent, and to permit henceforth no right to pass for a concession, nor to allow any encroachment on the fundamental laws. Neither leaders nor followers were lacking for this grand design. The whole nation rallied round the Parliament. Within this sanctuary bold and clever men consulted how it should be accomplished. Sir Edward Coke, the pride of magistracy, no less illustrious for his firmness than for his knowledge; Sir Thomas Wentworth, afterwards Lord Strafford, young, ardent, eloquent, born to command, and whose ambition was then satisfied with the admiration of his country;t Denzil Hollis, the youngest son of Lord Clare, in childhood the companion of Charles, but the sincere friend of liberty, and too proud to serve under a favorite Pym, a learned barrister, eminently skilled in the knowledge of the rights and customs of Parliament, cold, yet daring, and well knowing how to conduct himself with prudence as a leader of popular passions; and many others, destined, within a time much less than any of...